The invention relates generally to network connectivity and web casting. In particular, the invention relates to an improved apparatus and method for Internet connectivity and streaming video and/or audio media over the Internet using a satellite communication link.
“Webcasting” involves the transmission of streaming video and/or audio media to remote computers via a global computer network, such as the Internet. Transmission over the Internet of live video and/or audio of an event, in real-time, such that viewers are seeing the live event as it happens, with typically a few seconds and at most a few minutes of propagation delay is considered “live web casting.”
The problem of delivering broadband content to a subscriber/end user has been described as “the last mile problem” because the subscriber/end user computer typically operates at the slowest data transfer rate in the communication path. It is believed, however, that most broadband solutions are asymmetric, delivering high data rates to the subscriber, but using a relatively small amount of bandwidth from the subscriber. In many situations, this reflects an appropriate arrangement because the subscriber sends data requiring a relatively small amount of bandwidth (e.g., email and mouse click information), yet receives high bandwidth content such as images, sounds, movies, and the like. Web casting, in contrast, produces a somewhat different problem because a high bandwidth output is required from the webcast site to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). Thus, it is believed that none of the presently available broadband access products, which are largely asymmetric, including DSL, cable modems, proprietary systems, and the like represent an adequate solution. As such, the need for high bandwidth from the webcast site may be referred to as a “first mile problem.” The present invention teaches a solution to this “first mile problem.”
Originating a webcast requires a connection to the public Internet with enough bandwidth to support the transmission. The bandwidth required can be high because it is common practice to encode the same content in various formats, each supporting a different rate of connection to the end user. For example, a program might be concurrently encoded at 300 Kb/s for broadband subscribers, 120 Kb/s for ISDN users, 36 Kb/s for higher speed modem users, and 19 Kb/s for everybody else. Thus, webcasting such an event requires a total of 475 Kb/s or more. To webcast a live event, this level of connectivity must be available at the event site or some arrangement must be made to move the content to a location with sufficient connectivity. Such a data rate must be sustained over the duration of the event for optimum webcasting. An average data rate of 475 Kb/s, where this is achieved with a high burst rate and periods of lost packets, would be acceptable for most Internet applications such as the transfer of files and the delivery of email, but such a rate is not adequate for webcasting.
Due to the lack of high speed connectivity, especially in the remote-to-Internet direction, from venues such as stadiums, concert halls, sports fields, and the like, current live webcasts are often made with live audio only, and sometimes with the addition of frequently updated still pictures. So-called “live” video and audio webcasts have been made by ferrying video tapes from a venue to the studio but these are not really “live.” Truly live webcasts can been made by using a standard television uplink truck in connection with a geosynchronous satellite to move the produced video program to the studio for web encoding and distribution. This is believed to be the only current method with the same universal coverage as the invention disclosed herein below, and this current method is dramatically more expensive due to the need to rent a satellite transponder to transport the program. For technical reasons (e.g., the transponder becomes saturated by the analog video signal), this method occupies a full satellite transponder at a cost typically in excess of six hundred dollars per hour.
For these reasons, an improved apparatus and method for webcasting from a remote venue is desired. Such an apparatus and such a method benefits from the use of geosynchronous satellite bandwidth, but by its novel and advantageous architecture, enables webcasting using only a fraction of a transponder's bandwidth, freeing the balance for use by other applications, such as, for example, additional concurrent webcasts.